Rapper Eminem insists no one will ever hear the drug-fuelled rants he recorded at the height of his three years in self-imposed exile - because they sound tired and bitter.

The Not Afraid hitmaker is sober after battling his demons and now can't even bring himself to listen to tracks he recorded before painkillers and pills took away his enthusiasm for music and life.

So there's no way fans will hear his rap attacks on Kanye West and Lil Wayne and his slurred vocals.

He says, "There were songs where it sounded like I was talking-rapping. I'd become so f**king lazy."

And he's glad he held back tracks he recorded in 2006, in which he took aim at the rappers who had taken his place in the charts - because to release them would have been "career suicide".

He tells Spin magazine, "I'm hearing this dude say some clever, witty s**t and I'm not doing it, so I feel f**ked up... (but) if I had done something like that (released a diss track)... Where they were at and where I was at, it would have been career suicide. They would have f**king murdered me."